Neck Headaches...Some Causes to Address..

Neck headaches can be caused by discs or facet joints in the neck.

If a stiff neck, headache,and fever are present, meningitis comes to mind, and a trip to the hospital is needed to rule this out.

There're several types of headaches that are aggravating. The three most common are the migraine, tension headache, and the neck related headache. Unlike a migraine, a headache steaming from the neck most likely be milder.

The symptoms of neck headaches are !!!

The pain of a neck related headache is usually mild to moderate but on occasion can be severe. It usually hurts on one side. A person doesn't have to have a family history of headaches to have a neck related headache, as with the migraines.

One won't vomit, or have a aura with a neck headache, but sometimes you may be nausea.

It's important to remember that although one may have been diagnosed with migraines or tension type headaches, in all reality they could be suffering with neck related headaches, and received the wrong headache treatment. And the pain may not go away if this is the case.

Three recent research studies have looked at the frequency of neck related headaches. A study from Denmark showed that neck related headache was the diagnosis in at least eighteen percent of people with more than four headaches per month, and two and a half percent of the population as a whole. Another study found that neck related headaches was the diagnosis in fourteen percent of people with frequent headaches. Another study found that neck headache was the diagnosis in sixteen percent of people with chronic headaches. To sum this up, fourteen to eighteen percent of chronic headache sufferers, and two and a half percent of the population that have headaches are neck related headaches.

With forty five million headache sufferers just in the USA alone you can see how many headaches are related to neck headaches. The neck and pillow come in contact more than anything else, so it makes sense to put the neck on something that is going to smooth it.

Causes of neck related headaches

The most common cause is the discs or the facet joints of the upper, and middle neck. A neck injury or a whiplash can stimulate the rich nerve supply that comes up through the neck. The outer layer of the discs, called the anulus, can be the culprit for a neck headache, as well as the facet joints. The weight of the head puts pressure on the discs, further increasing the pain.

"They thought that my wife had bad facet joints, that was causing her headaches, and at one time severed the nerves in a couple of places in her neck."

There's a rich supply of nerves in the neck that can become inflamed, and cause neck headaches.

Also neck pain headaches can arise from injuries to the ligaments, and muscles, but these injuries usually heal in one to three weeks. (BUT) if a disc or facet joint is injured, that can cause muscles to go into spasm, due to the injury, and add insult to injury.

The treatment for neck headache

Since there's no one best treatment for neck related headaches the best treatment is prevention. Practice good posture. Pay attention to what you were doing before the headache, and a connection may appear.

Try analgesics for the pain, but don't make a habit, to much pain medicine can back fire sometimes. Also apply an ice pack to the area of the neck that is giving the most pain.

A few causes of neck pain headaches

Sitting at a computer is a common one, lying in bed with to many pillows under the head, reading or watching the TV. Also working overhead such as painting can trigger a neck related headache.

We were talking about neck stiffness, fever, and a headache at the top of the page. If this happens go to the doctor, and get professional help. Meningitis is a bacterial infection called "listeriosis". If the infection spreads to the nervous system it can cause meningitis, an infection of the covering of the brain and spinal cord.

And the symptoms of meningitis are headache, stiff neck, confusion, loss of balance, and convulsions.

Don't delay going to a doctor. Neck related headaches are most likely related to discs, facet joints, poor posture, overuse of muscles or even stress.

Thanks for reading, we hope this gave some info you can use.

Our last page was about coughing headaches, and our next page is on serotonin migraines. Quite a few reasons one can have headaches, isn't there?

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